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Chapter Five - A Beginning – Page 177
There is a sense of an impulse (which the group seems to find difficult to
express overtly) to make an angry attack
Evidence for this includes the feelings of sadistic pleasure in the discussion, noted
above; the apparently unsuccessful attempt of the staff to fight in front of the group
(which is but one of the series of pairs, again referred to above); the focus on people
who left, which exposes Judi’s entry to the group late in terms of the whole course, as
well as the leaving of Bill’s former teaching partner; and the pattern (discussed in the
next paragraph) between the staff in the break.
One staff member subtly attacks the group, but then in turn is attacked in
the break by the other staff member
From my notes and from re-hearing the tape of the session, I am aware of the tension
from the beginning that seems to persist into the first period of discussion. Regarding
the Reder paper, I think that consciously I brought this in as a response to the patient’s
family, where the grandparents, unlike the parents, know what to do with a child who
cannot sleep. On reflection though, I wonder if I am unconsciously blaming the
students, for the unarticulated difficulty in this group that struggles to sit down together,
and which at some level is enraged with its facilitators.
Judi’s remark in the break about the Reflective Group (that it does not work because the
person who facilitates it is not part of the teaching staff) is a kind of attack on Q, the
facilitator of the Reflective Group, and on S, the facilitator of the Reflective Group for
the first year students. It is also an attack on Bill, who structured and manages this
programme. It links to the issue of the request for sandwiches discussed last week.
Among other things, displacement seems particularly important here.